Members of The Church and Oswaldtwistle Rotary Club have thanked residents for contributing more than £6,000 from house to house collections.

During December, Santa and his sleigh toured the district and collected money for charity.

Dawn Taylor, President of the Rotary Club, paid tribute to the local community for their genorosity.

She said: “I would like to place on record our appreciation to all the residents in the Hyndburn area who have shown great support for the Rotary Club’s annual Santa visits with such a generous collection, which will be going to local good causes, groups, organisations and emergency appeals in 2024.

"Members of the Santa committee must take a lot of credit for ensuring all aspects of this major event were so well organised that led to its success.”

Despite the inclement weather, only one evening collection out of the 10 scheduled to take place was cancelled.

Due to strong winds in the West End area of Oswaldtwistle, it was too risky for the sleigh and children. 

Groups from Oswaldtwistle Mills, White Ash School, Police Cadets, Fire Cadets, Sea Cadets and the Wandering Wombles took turns in turning out night after night in grand numbers to help raise money.

Local ASDA and Tesco supermarkets also allowed collections to be made in their stores.

In total, 46 volunteers gave 511 hours of walking the streets and collecting.